Hong Kong needs more professionals to find hidden cases of at-risk elderly, say social workers

A Hong Kong district councillor and social welfare experts have urged the government to increase the number of professionally trained social workers to boost work identifying hidden households with vulnerable elderly people, arguing that volunteers in community care teams can only perform supporting roles.

Wilson Or Chong-shing, a Kwun Tong district council member and a member of a community care team, said on a radio programme on Friday that volunteers were not as effective at locating or assessing high-risk households as professional social workers or trained caregivers from non-governmental organisations.

“The government should take primary responsibility for finding hidden cases, leading other district NGOs, community groups and community care teams to do this work together,” he said.

“Care teams can provide some help, but NGOs should be on the front line,” Or said.

Labor and Welfare Minister Chris Sun Yuk-han told local media on Thursday that authorities had last visited the family in November as they were recipients of social security benefits, but the couple did not say they needed further help.

Wong Yu-cheung, dean of the College of Social Sciences at Saint Francis University and another guest on the radio show, said existing care teams may not have enough staff to handle multiple tasks under their purview, and some cases also go untreated due to a lack of capacity to assess them.

“In the long term, we cannot rely on volunteers to reach high-risk households; we need services that are more organised and professionally trained staff to help, who can then also mobilise volunteers,” she said.

Crystal Yuen Shuk-yan of the Society for Community Organizing, a third guest on the show, said that while some care teams were able to help uncover hidden cases in the community, they were hampered by limited resources and could only make brief home visits.

He said the government should use information it had collected under its Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme, which provides monthly cash allowances to households in financial need, to identify high-risk cases.

Yuen added that it was not uncommon for needy families, especially men, to refuse help because they were worried about disturbing others or were not used to accepting social services.

“Even if they don’t ask for help, that doesn’t mean they don’t need it. More training and more staff are needed to identify their non-financial needs,” she said.

Those who had sought help from the Social Welfare Department previously but were rejected will also be more reluctant to seek further assistance, Yuen added.

“It takes time and effort to get to the point where they feel comfortable enough to seek and accept help,” she said.

Community care teams were established in all 18 districts of Hong Kong last year to help promote government initiatives and support residents, with volunteers tasked with a wide range of tasks including visiting and delivering supplies to those in need, providing emergency support in times of crisis and delivering government information.

The government announced the pilot scheme last October, which involves community care teams operating in the Southern and Tsuen Wan districts, which are divided into 17 to 19 small groups.

Sun said on Thursday that teams under the scheme, which was launched in April, had visited more than 3,000 homes with elderly residents and provided personal emergency liaison to about 100 people.

The Emergency Link is a wireless electronic device that allows users to be connected 24 hours a day to a call center to receive emergency advice and services.